Canberra Gourmand Tour of the Far South Coast

22 April 2018
/ Words: Julie Austin, Photos: Peter Le

All tops were down for a perfect drive from Canberra to Tathra for a long weekend. The owners of the Big 4 caravan park at Tathra had assured us we were welcome, despite the disastrous bushfires that had swept through the town the weekend before leaving many people without homes.

The Canberra MX5 Club has a reputation for indulging in fine food and wine, but fine coffee is the highest priority for most members. So our first stop was the Albion Café in the main street of Braidwood and it didn't disappoint.

The Moruya markets, held every Saturday, are legendary so we enjoyed a quick wander through the stalls. It is a shame MXs has limited carrying capacity for shopping. By 1:00 pm we were ready for our lunch at the Narooma Golf Club. Finding fine food at a club is unexpected but my kingfish was superb. Those with big appetites indulged in the seafood platter, while the rest of us watched as they struggle to eat it all. It did look nice.

The plan that evening was to have a take-away pizza dinner but, surprisingly, no-one was particularly hungry. Nevertheless, out of our MXs came vast quantities of wine, cheese and assorted nibbles which soon vanished.

We all slept well that night, listening to the rain on our cabin roofs.

On Sunday, with our tops down again, Peter and Jen led us south to Merimbula and inland to Candelo and Wyndham through very pretty scenery and great roads. It was market day at Wyndham and, while nothing like the Moruya market, we gave the town a financial boost and enjoyed the best coffee of the whole trip.

The next stop was lunch at the Pambula Golf Club overlooking a beautiful course, golfers being drenched in a downpour of rain and dozens of kangaroos looking on. Needless to say, the food here was good too and our light lunch turned into a substantial meal. My Thai fishcakes were delicious.

Dinner that evening was at the Tathra pub. The fires of the previous weekend had come perilously close to this beautiful old two story sandstone building situated on the headland overlooking the ocean but fortunately left it unharmed. With a big crowd and live music pumping the atmosphere was great. There was also a great menu and the sticky pork ribs did look good, but my duck curry was fine. Some of our group managed to fit in the locally made ice cream too, which should be good judging by all the happy cows we saw on our drives.

On Monday morning, congratulating ourselves on not having to go to work on such a beautiful day, we headed south again to Merimbula, then Eden wharf for coffee and a two course lunch at the beautiful Seahorse Inn at Twofold Bay.

After the photo shoot we zoom zoomed back to Canberra for a very light dinner at home.